seed butter

I am a peanut butter loving woman living in a nut free house due to my son’s food allergies. There are a couple of nut free alternatives on the market but my preferred one made from sunflower seeds is only available in the USA and while you can order it to be shipped to the uk it is eye wateringly expensive to do so. Finding seeds that have not been processed in the same facility as peanuts and treenuts has been a life changing discovery. Life changing. I am not in anyway linked to or paid by https://nutrenergy.com/ but I’m so happy to have found a safe source of seeds (and great customer service) that I have to resist telling them I love them several times a week on social media. They’ve not blocked me yet so I think I’ve managed to be fairly restrained in my affection for them.

After a lot of experimentation with different seeds, oils and sweeteners (you can make it without added sweetness if you prefer) I’ve settled on a recipe that my daughter and I absolutely love and will pretty much eat on anything – biscuits, scones, muffins, toast, cereal. My son is less taken with the idea of eating something that looks a bit (ok quite a lot) like baby poo but he really enjoys biscuits & bars using seed butter as an ingredient.

You’ll need a food processor to make the seed butter.

This butter is a combination of sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Just sunflower seeds is delicious and needs less oil, just pumpkin seeds is a lot thicker and curiously green. The addition of chia seeds looks like you’ve stirred in fleas. Don’t do it.

Ingredients

90g (3/4 cup) toasted Sunflower seeds

40g (1/4 cup) toasted Pumpkin seeds

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon maple syrup

3 tablespoons sunflower oil (melted coconut oil is also delicious, it’s sets a lot firmer in the fridge so depends what consistency you prefer)

Instructions

To toast the seeds (which gives them their nutty flavour) spread a thin layer of seeds on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and toast in the oven for 18 minutes at 165C. Extra seeds not required for the recipe can be stored in an airtight container and are super tasty sprinkled on breakfast and on salads (or eaten by the handful).

Measure the sunflower & pumpkin seeds and the salt and place them into a food processor

Process on high for 2 minutes, scrape the sides with a spatula then leave the seeds to sit for 15 minutes to release their oils.

Whizz the seeds again repeating several times for about a minute at a time with a minute in between until they start to clump together.

Add the maple syrup and a tablespoon of sunflower oil and whizz again then add the remainder of the oil a spoon at a time till you have the desired consistency. If you are just using sunflower seeds you will only need a couple of tablespoons of oil, just pumpkin is considerably thicker and may need more.

You can store the seed butter in clean sterilised jars (google how to sterilise jars, it’s really simple) but we get through it so quickly I usually use a small plastic tub stored in the fridge. I can’t say how long it’ll keep in the fridge because we scoff it within 3 days.

These were seed butters I made with coconut oil so are a more set consistency (optimum for eating by the spoonful 😉)

I’ve been making seed butter at least once a week. It’s tasty, it makes me happy because it tastes so nutty but without the fear and I’m delighted my daughter likes it as it’s certainly a more nutritious topping than jam.